Working together to remove Cyber-harassment
Cyber-Bullying can be caused by discrimination of sexuality, religious beliefs or racism, but it does not discriminate against age or gender. Please read this story about Cyberbullying. http://www.overcomebullying.org/cyberbullying.html
Many victims of Cyberbullying may be confused by what constitutes as Cyberbullying, or simply may not know how to handle their offenders. It's important that we educate ourselves on what Cyber-bullying is- CYBER-BULLYING "involves the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others." It's equally as important to understand that cyberbullying may have serious psychological effects on the victim. You should never judge a persons reaction to their cyberbully. Many victims of online harassment are unsure of how to handle the situation, despite giving the impression that everything is under control.
That has been made painfully obvious with the loss of Phobe Prince, who was found dead in her South Hadley home Jan, 14th, 2010. Or most recently, the loss of 14 year old, Jamey Rodemeyer, who made several attempts to seek help in dealing with bullies at school and online before taking his own life, Sept, 18th, 2011. Sadly, even in death, both of these teens received harassing messages online.
What should you do if you, or someone you care about are being Cyber-Bullied
First, you should STOP, BLOCK, AND REPORT (I.E Tell someone)
No matter the age of the victim, the course of action should always be the same - stop, block, and report. If you are a minor, you should tell an adult, parent, teacher, someone you trust about the harassment. Today, most state legislation includes cyber-bullying. If you are an adult or minor that is being cyber-stalked, and or cyber-bullied, you should not feel shame about contacting the appropriate authorities. If your local Law Enforcement office is not equipped to handle Cyber crimes, please contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I know it's difficult to read what Cyber-bullies are saying about you online, but please track and document every message, blog, comment, text, attempt to invade your computer and personal information possible. Cyber-bullying, harassment, and cyber-stalking are cyber-crimes, and the victims of these crimes should not try and fight their offenders alone. If at all possible, talk to a friend or family member about the cyber-bullying. You might be amazed at the support you'll find.
Adults CAN RELATE
I have been dealing with Cyber-bullies on Twitter for close to a year, and whats happening to me should not happen to anyone. I was a witness to the online cyber-bullying, and the cyber-stalking of a woman I considered to be my elder. (today, I consider her a friend) Not to insult this beautiful lady, she's just a few years my senior. Which is why I found this situation with cyber-bullying so unbelievable. I could not believe the verbal abuse this lady was enduring via: http://www.twitter.com, or the bullies so-called reasoning behind calling her derogatory names, telling her to kill herself, and bringing up hurtful circumstances that occurred in her personal life. All in attempt to make this lady feel worthless. I think one of the most disgusting acts I have witnessed is when the cyber- bullies searched and found a photo of this beautiful mother/grandmother online and posted it all over twitter, while verbally ripping this woman apart. All of this is justified in a cyber-bullies mind, because this lady feels the need to defend herself. Obviously, I spoke up to defend this woman, which lead to my own story with the same cyber-bullies. I also reported the group of cyber-bullies, but... if you've ever reported someone on Twitter.com, you may have found it's difficult to see results. Basically, Twitter suggest that you block the offending party. While that's fine and dandy, all of your followers can still read the harassing, defamatory, and degrading comments sent to you by the Cyber-bullies. In my experience with Cyber-bullies- they're all the same. They lie to everyone with whom you're associated to encourage 3rd party harassment. (they accuse you of doing everything they're doing) Which makes the entire situation more difficult to handle. Some people find the harassing comments harder to ignore knowing everyone else is reading it. No one deserves to be cyber-bullied, or ganged up on. Even if they haven't handled the situation appropriately. In the last few months our cyber-bullying has progressed into cyber-bullying/stalking. When your cyber-bully has threatened to invade your personal life, you have no choice but to contact authorities. Please understand, your Cyberbully, and possibly a 3rd party bystander may question your sanity when you decide to handle the situation properly an contact Law Enforcement. Don't allow anyone to minimize your experience with cyber-bullies, or bully you into submission. This isn't a popularity contest, this is your life. They're going to harass/cyber bully you no matter how you handle the situation. So I suggest we all take the proper steps, Stop, block, report. (tell someone)
Here are just a couple of harassing, and degrading tweets sent to @Adasheart These bullies would like to convince everyone that Ada has forced them into bullying her. (because she looked at their twitter time line, therefore she deserves to be harassed, or she responded to the harassment.) As you see, there is a blog written about Ada as well. And, I assure you, there have been thousands of cyber-bully tweets. The tweets pictured below are hurtful, but two or three hurtful tweets do not constitute cyber-bullying. This situation has grown into cyberstalking/cyberbullying. There have been- False rumors of drug abuse, threats of calling Social services, posting personal information, contacting family members, libel, and several attempts to access private accounts- That's what tweets like these have progressed into. And it's not only Ada they're targeting. There are several women being targeted. (The tweeters listed below are not necessarily responsible for the aformentioned cyber-harassment)
mother should have swallowed?
Beached whale in so cal?
Ada is overjoyed, I picked the best pic out of her real pics. (posting, and poking fun of Ada's picture?)
@support can you please help
(I realize you can't make out the tweets or the names)
Thank you for allowing me to use your story, Ada.
Remember, You will be of more help to the victim of Cyber-bullying if you support them, and report their Cyber-bully. Do not make yourself a target. Stop, block, and report (tell someone).
I would like to invite everyone in helping me remove Cyber-Bully content from the Internet. The more people we have involved in reporting cyber-harassment on twitter, facebook, etc.. The better chance we have of getting this content removed from the Internet, and sending the message that cyber-harassment is UNACCEPTABLE. All I ask is that if you see someone being tormented/cyber-bullied online, that you anonymously report their twitter account, facebook message, formspring, youtube account, whatever the case may be. Lets work together to end Cyber bullying. You never know, you could be saving a life.
Twitter: http://support.twitter.com/forms/general
Youtube: http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/request.py#
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=247013378662696
Formspring: http://formspringme.zendesk.com/anonymous_requests/new
Wordpress: http://en.wordpress.com/abuse/
Blogspot: http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/request.py?hl=en&contact_type=main_tos
This information should NOT be used to encourage cyber-bullying , we're only reporting harassment, and the posting of personal information. If we all work together, we can end Cyber-bullying. I encourage everyone to participate.
Thank you for your time.
If bullying means you, or someone you know, feels suicidal, please call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) in the U.S.
